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Ask HN: What are fastest paths to financial success?

2 points by snowisgone ↗ HN
At Digg, one mentor gave me the savvy advice that the fastest path to financial success was working for four years at three different just-about-to-IPO companies. A surefire way to retire by forty. (This is, for the record, pretty good advice.)

https://lethain.com/forty-year-career/

What are other fastest paths to financial success? Currently am a software engineer, so looking for advice in this career choice.

8 comments

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AnimalMuppet
The fastest path to financial ruin is to look for the fastest path to financial success. Slow and steady may take longer, but it's much more reliable.
verdverm
What about cryptos? Can I get rich with those?
AnimalMuppet
Yes, if you bought them five to eight years ago. Now? Who knows? It's rolling the dice. Some will tell you the odds are good... but they said that just before Bitcoin lost half its value. They were wrong then. Are they right now? Personally, I wouldn't bet on it.
verdverm
Nope, would not put money in. There's nothing valuable behind the hype.

I picked up some early 2017 and made almost an extra year's salary. Would not complain about hype take 2

icedchai
I'd start by reading "The Millionaire Next Door." It basically boils down to 1) get a decent paying job, 2) live below your means, 3) save/invest the rest of your money for 20 to 30+ years.

Hitting 3 "about-to-IPO" companies that actually do IPO and also give you a decent return is very, very low probability. One of the first startups I worked for, during the dot-bom boom, went IPO. Less than two year later it was near bankruptcy. Everyone's options were under water. Maybe a couple guys cashed out a bit, but nothing life changing.

snowisgone
Is there a faster way beyond the first three steps? Surely there is a more nuanced "meta" (for lack of a better term) in making money in software?
icedchai
How fast are you looking for? You can think about it as a speed being inversely proportional to probability of success.
catacombs
<sarcasm>

Step 1: Don't be poor. Step 2: Repeat.

</sarcasm>